Securing Wireless Communications of the Internet of Things from the Physical Layer, An Overview

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent research on lightweight physical layer security methods for IoT wireless communications, focusing on key generation and encryption to address low power and complexity constraints.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of physical layer security techniques for IoT, highlighting recent advances and future research directions.

Findings

Physical layer key generation is practical for IoT.

Lightweight encryption schemes are effective for low-power devices.

Future work aims to enhance robustness and adoption.

Abstract

The security of the Internet of Things (IoT) is receiving considerable interest as the low power constraints and complexity features of many IoT devices are limiting the use of conventional cryptographic techniques. This article provides an overview of recent research efforts on alternative approaches for securing IoT wireless communications at the physical layer, specifically the key topics of key generation and physical layer encryption. These schemes can be implemented and are lightweight, and thus offer practical solutions for providing effective IoT wireless security. Future research to make IoT-based physical layer security more robust and pervasive is also covered.